The obvious takeaway: USC is eight first-place votes and 34 points ahead of everybody, including still-almost-dead-even Alabama and LSU, with LSU dropping from first to third (barely) after the Tyrann Mathieu shenanigans. The coaches' poll was flipped in terms of order but, more significantly, had all three within two first-place votes of each other; the media obviously love them some USC.

Other observations will be somewhat limited because I already made them. Srsly: After LSU, the AP poll is exactly the same as the coaches' poll all the way down to No. 16. I expected at least a little deviation among maybe the Michigan/Wisconsin/Michigan State triumvirate or Texas' placement or something but got nothing except for some minor shuffling toward the bottom.

The AP poll does provide a little context for Ohio State: They're 18th, one spot lower than Nebraska and therefore third in the Big Ten Whatever Division. I know Urban Meyer is God and yadda yadda yadda, but that ranking is probably more reasonable than the bottom-half-of-the-top-10 ones provided by a bunch of the preview magazines/websites given that Ohio State was 6-7 last year.